It’s the light you notice first, sifting through the many maples and magnolias, gilding fringes of golden pines and warming the blush-pink petals of roses in their second flush. This is Sandringham, the private Norfolk estate of His Majesty King Charles III. It’s little wonder so many artists move to this part of the world, where the long days stretch from really early mornings to beautifully drawn-out sunsets. There’s an expansive, luminous clarity that shows off the plants so well.
This July, a different kind of light will shine on the 60-acre estate when the inaugural RHS Sandringham Flower Show opens – the latest in a line of horticultural highlights and shake-ups under the stewardship of The King. First came the Topiary Garden in 2023, a one-acre geometric jewel filled with resilient planting, which did away with the formal lawns on the west side of the House, once dug for victory during the First World War and now home to an exceptional garden of Perennials are plants that live for multiple years. They come in all shapes and sizes and fill our gardens with colourful flowers and ornamental foliage. Many are hardy and can survive outdoors all year round, while less hardy types need protection over winter. The term herbaceous perennial is used to describe long-lived plants without a permanent woody structure (they die back to ground level each autumn), distinguishing them from trees, shrubs and sub-shrubs.
Last year the adjacent Sundial Garden, laid out as per the elliptical orbit of Venus to reflect His Majesty’s interest in symbolisms of harmony and balance, was also unveiled to visitors. Along with the Broad Walk, revamped Rockery, Birch Grove, Acer Glade and Magnolia Walk, there’s a real sense that things here are being taken to the next level.
The Gardens at Sandringham have been open to the public since 1908, following an initial horticultural transformation by Edward VII, who was gifted the estate in 1862 by his mother, Queen Victoria. Edward created two ornamental lakes, formal lawns and parterres. He engaged star Victorian landscapers James Pulham and Son to build the Rockery and a summerhouse called the Nest using Pulhamite stone and set in motion a major tree planting scheme, including the introduction of 10 giant redwoods, Sequoiadendron giganteum. King Edward VII and Queen Alexandra shaped the landscape we see today, and it’s the backbone on which the gardens hang.
Here in midsummer, the Topiary Garden and its 5,000 herbaceous plants and These are fleshy, rounded, underground storage organs, usually sold and planted while dormant. Examples include daffodils, tulips, hyacinths, lilies, onions and garlic. The term is often used to cover other underground storage organs, including corms, tubers and rhizomes.
Head Gardener Jack Lindfield, who arrived in March 2022, leads a very busy team of 16‚ but they’re not the only ones you’ll see on the grounds.
“The King is very hands-on, and across everything in the garden. He’ll always have secateurs and a pruning saw with him and has been known to take whole branches off trees. I joke that he can put his invoice in when he’s ready.” Once known as a mid-to-late spring garden, Sandringham has become a year-round destination thanks to the addition of so many new plants and trees that like to show off in more than one season. “None of the new elements are vanity projects,” says Jack. “His Majesty is always thinking, ‘how do we make it more interesting for visitors?’ If I try and introduce a new tree, for example, His Majesty will always ask: ‘What does it do?’ Before working here, no one ever asked me that question so plainly.”
Nowhere is this clearer than in Sandringham’s extensive tree collection. There are saplings everywhere and each year hundreds more are planted. Last year for example, the team added 100 more trees into the 120m-long Magnolia Walk, bringing the new total to more than 300 specimens. Previously a big, long stretch of lawn, it has a significant effect within its part of the garden. “It bridges the gap nicely between the historic Woodland Walk – which is my favourite place in the Garden, filled with some lovely, interesting and rare plants – and the more formal areas,” says Jack.There are repeat flowering stalwarts including Magnolia ‘Ann’ and M. ‘Susan’ and some rarer cultivars, including The King’s favourites M. FELIX JURY (‘Jurmag2’) and M. ‘Premier Cru’. “‘Premier Cru’ is one of the first to bloom in early March and this year, the first flower came out on the last day of the King’s visit,” says Jack. “He was thrilled to see it. He was here in May this year so he saw the Cornus when they were in flower, too.”
The gardens team have planted more than 40 different cultivars of the latter on the Broad Walk alone, along with a further 40 oaks and Japanese maples, with their tantalising promise of fiery autumn colour just around the corner. There’s even a tree from David Beckham. “He bought His Majesty a sizable Acer palmatum ‘Dissectum’ to mark his Coronation,” says Jack. “It is lovely and has that instant impact a large tree creates. I’m not sure why David decided on this specific tree – he just knows The King likes acers.”
Delphiniums, famously, are another of The King’s floral favourites, as are hydrangeas, which provide impressive levels of impact. Sweeps of Hydrangea paniculata HERCULES (‘Grhp14’) in five island borders close to the back of the House are now at their peak, their creamy blooms revealing hints of pink to come. Come winter, their nodding heads will provide a burnt umber backdrop to both Cornus sanguinea ‘Midwinter Fire’ and C. alba ‘Sibirica’, only to be upstaged in spring by 80,000 flowering bulbs including Narcissus ‘Jetfire’ and ‘February Gold’. If that doesn’t pique interest, the latest addition to the garden certainly will. A mammoth 4,500sq m Long Border that snakes around the east side of the House has been designed by Catherine MacDonald and crammed full of plants. Prior to this, the area acted mainly as an evergreen backdrop to the east side of the garden, but it’s been transformed with the addition of 9,000 perennials, 1,000 shrubs and 30-odd trees. There’s a delightful mixture of both sun and shade-loving plants for visitors to enjoy as they walk in and out of the canopy line.
After so much activity, the gardening team could be forgiven for taking things easier this year. But then, there’s another future highlight to prepare for, namely The RHS Royal Legacy Garden, designed by Catherine MacDonald alongside His Majesty, which will make its debut at the RHS Sandringham Flower Show later this month, before being Moving a plant from one growing position to another, often from a pot to its final spot in the garden.
